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About this project

For the last four years, The Feast Conference has convened remarkable entrepreneurs, radicals, doers and thinkers who are revolutionizing the way things work for the betterment of humanity. Past speakers at The Feast include Matthew Bishop of The Economist, Perry Chen, Founder of Kickstarter, Tom Szaky, Co-founder of Terracycle, Naveen Selvadurai, Co-founder of Foursquare, Scott Belsky, CEO of Behance and more.

Over those four years, the landscape for Social Innovation has changed and so has our role. For 2012, in addition to rethinking our annual conference, we’re opening up the dialogue to move people to action like never before. We want to host The World’s Fare: a huge, global, roaming dinner party capped off with a public celebration of innovation in New York City, all to change the world.

Here’s how it works.

We’re inviting innovators and instigators everywhere, doers and entrepreneurs of all ages to host a literal Feast of their own for six or more friends at 7pm local time on October 5, 2012. (That’s the final day of The Feast Conference.)

The goal is simple: break bread and by the end of dinner, collectively decide on one thing you all can collaborate on to improve the world (whether it’s renovating the park or supporting an effort to redefine an industry!)

As these dinners take place across the globe and conference attendees workshop throughout that day, we’ll collect all of the ideas that emerge on a dedicated website.

Now here’s the kicker. Akin to the original World’s Fair, we want to then host a giant public pavilion in NYC the very next day (October 6) to cap off this roaming dinner. Kids, families, and anyone from the creative community will be able to explore your ideas, enjoy food, music, performance, and get inspired by some of today’s most amazing innovations.

Why are we doing this?

Because we believe that a better future is possible, but it doesn’t come from the top down. It’s built by the actions of people like you who re-imagine how something might be better and seize the opportunity to make that the reality.

Why turn to Kickstarter?

We need your help to make the World’s Fare happen, so we’re turning to Kickstarter for two main reasons:

1) To help raise funds so we can coordinate this global Feast.

We’re looking to develop a dedicated site with an interactive map of registered Feasts, a searchable database of ideas that will be coming out of these events, and a resource toolkit for dinner hosts. A portion of the funds from this campaign will help us work with a talented web design/development team as well as some great content partners that we’re already engaged with to make this platform a reality.

2) To help raise funds so we can construct the public pavilion.

Our plan is to completely transform a raw space in NYC into an epic showcase of the most remarkable innovations. The centerpiece will be an interactive, live art piece that displays all of the ideas and efforts coming in from those “Feasting” around the world. A portion of the funds from this campaign will help us work with our fabulous architectural and event production partners so we can move forward with the next phase of design for the space and the installations within it.

Back the project, help make this happen.

Official registration to host a dinner will open to the public, free of charge, later in the summer.

But to make this all happen, we need to raise a certain amount of money to cover the next steps. With this Kickstarter campaign, we hope to raise those funds through the folks that believe in this vision and want to help make it possible.

After the Kickstarter, backers of this campaign will have the option to pre-register as our founding dinner hosts (before official registration later this Summer) and will be recognized as special “Friends of the Fare” (with various levels) for their contribution.

Whether it’s an initiative big or small, a new project, an old one, or that idea you just keep putting off, these dinners are the opportunity to host a kickoff (or even launch party!) for getting it off the ground. (See the FAQ for project examples.)

We also fully encourage you to back the project if you’re not looking to host a dinner of your own. You can definitely still support the dinner party and the construction of the public pavilion of innovation. You can attend The Feast events we’re cooking up in New York City and scoop up some great rewards including T-shirts, Tattlys, Totes, some exciting dinner opportunities, and tickets to the pavilion, Feast afterparty and even the 2012 Feast Conference.

If you can’t decide whether or not to host a dinner, don’t fret friend. Dinner registration happens after the campaign anyways, so you can pledge for one of these rewards now and decide later!

What has been done so far?

We’ve been in the planning process for many months. With reference to the World’s Fare dinners, we’ve started establishing larger hubs through partner hosts in New Zealand, Germany, Italy, and beyond. We’re also putting our theme, “The Power of Community,” to work by partnering with organizations that truly combine community and action to make this the largest dinner party ever.

We’ve laid out our requirements and information architecture for the website and engaged a great web design/development shop. We’re lucky to also be working with some amazing process design partners on creating what we believe will be a hugely useful and valuable toolkit for our dinner hosts.

By collaborating with the city of New York we’ve secured an inspiring 10,000 sq. ft. raw warehouse space, which will be the site of our large public event. In addition, we’ve begun curating some of the remarkable exhibitors/vendors for the pavilion. And we’ve also been working extensively with amazing design partners including the guys from Family and Playlab, masterminds behind the + Pool, to plan the build out of this pavilion of innovation.

In other exciting news, we’re partnering with the American Museum of Natural History and Eyebeam Art and Technology Center to host this year’s Feast Conference.

The Bigger Picture: The Feast Social Innovation Week

During the first week of October this year, The Feast plans to host the first ever Social Innovation Week: a global series of events, centered in New York City, focused on building a brighter future from the bottom up.

The Feast Conference and the World’s Fare dinners and Pavilion serve as the major parts of the 2012 Social Innovation Week. To stay up to date, visit feastongood.com and sign up for The Feast newsletter.

Snapshots from The Feast:

Join us at the table!

We’d love to have you as part of the inaugural World’s Fare. Join in, back the project, and pledge to be part of a brighter vision for a better future.

In you’re interested in learning more about The Feast in general, visit feastongood.com. In addition, we are always on the lookout for leading groups, institutions and companies to partner with in this ambitious undertaking. If you’d like to get more involved, we’d love to hear from you.

FAQ

This term is sounding more buzzwordy by the minute, but in short we equate Social Innovation to the creation of value through social means. It’s still a huge umbrella, but we believe in the power of unlocking the creative and innovative potential of people - through anything from the volunteer corps at giant companies like IBM to sustainable development through water systems for local farms to the facilitation of craft and commerce through platforms like Kickstarter.

Understandable, but we believe it’s necessary. Ultimately, people are full of potential: to create, to express, to love -- and that variable definition of "better," as a means to achieving a "better life," must be left to individuals. What Social Innovation can do is open the channels to information, critical thinking, and choice. Ultimately, it can unlock the potential in people by enabling the creation of real value by every one of us.

We’ll be working with a special facilitation partner to put together a process that a dinner host can use to identify a worthwhile, common problem to tackle and start a collaboration (if the host and/or team doesn’t already have a project in mind). This process will be a key component of the kit in addition to: The Feast’s official challenges as thought starters, tools to help you organize your dinner, and resources for helping execute your idea. Nonetheless, the last thing we want to do is get in your way of making something awesome. We’ll be doing our best to keep the resources lightweight. You’re free to use them as you see fit, but the most important thing is setting an evening aside for less talk and more food/action.

It’s open, and we expect that depends on you, your guests, location, passions, age, involvements, eating habits etc. But If you’d like some examples:

- Committing to helping take a buddy’s sideproject to a new level
- Scheming around a way to get more people in your city walking from place to place
- Starting an after-school program for kids that rivals the Boyscouts
- Organizing your community’s first farmer’s market
- Working on that business idea to disrupt an age-old industry
- Fixing up the local community center, both on-site and online

Can’t help you with this one. But we’d recommend starting with the people you’ve always wanted to collaborate with and maybe even consider inviting a co-host or a “guest of honor,” a badass advisor of sorts that you’d be excited to have dinner with.

Well, friend, don’t let us get in your way. If you’d like to host a series of dinners beforehand, by all means get on it. If you’d like to start working on something now and aim to host an October 5 Dinner Launch Party (DLP) instead, that sounds awesome. If you’d like to get even more involved with what we have cooking at The Feast, maybe even hosting a larger dinner extravaganza, definitely get in touch with us at http://mailto:hello@feastongood.com. Otherwise, sit back, let it all marinate and October will be here quicker than you think.

Yup. As mentioned, we also encourage you to back the project even if you’re not looking to host a dinner of your own. You can still support the dinner party and the construction of the public pavilion of innovation. You can also attend The Feast events we’re cooking up in New York City and scoop up some great rewards including T-shirts, Tattlys, Totes, some exciting dinner opportunities, and tickets to the pavilion, Feast afterparty and even the 2012 Feast Conference.

If you can’t decide whether or not to host a dinner, don’t fret friend. Dinner registration happens after the campaign anyways, so you can pledge for one of these rewards now, chew it over, and decide later!

Rewards

Pledge $5 or more

A big thank you and special updates about The Feast’s planning for the World’s Fare.

Estimated delivery:Jul 2012

You selected

Pledge $10 or more

23 backers

An extra big thank you, updates on The World’s Fare, and a ticket to the Pavilion in NYC (Oct. 6).

Estimated delivery:Sep 2012

You selected

Pledge $25 or more

92 backers

Become a “Friend of the Fare” -- You'll be recognized as a "Friend of the Fare" on the website, be able to pre-register (after the campaign) to host your own World’s Fare dinner if you choose, get free access to the livestream of this year’s Feast Conference, and be able to download the dinner host resource toolkit. We’ll also mail you some special Feast Tattly Temporary Tattoos and you and a guest get free tickets to the Pavilion in NYC!

Estimated delivery:Sep 2012

You selected

Pledge $50 or more

40 backers

Become a “Founding Friend of The Fare” -- Everything included in the “Friend” package but with special “Founding” status on the website. Plus, you’ll get your choice of a rockin’ Feast T-shirt or Tote bag. (Please add $10 for international shipping)

Estimated delivery:Sep 2012

You selected

Pledge $125 or more

30 backers

Become a “Superhero Friend of The Fare!” -- Everything included in the “Founding Friend” package but with “Superhero” status, 2 VIP Tickets to the Pavilion, an exclusive preview of exhibits and installations before the event, and a special secret tour of the Pavilion during the previous week of buildout. Finally, you'll be invited to a rad dance party.

Estimated delivery:Sep 2012

You selected

Pledge $250 or more

6 backers

Become a “Partner Dinner Host!” -- Perfect for the organizing type, host a larger World’s Fare dinner (multiple tables). You/your group will be listed as a “Partner Dinner Host” on the website, get free access to the conference livestream, and be able to download the dinner host resource toolkit. Plus we’ll setup a 30 minute, remote coaching session between you and The Feast team to provide advice about what you’re working on and wish you a great dinner. We’ll even stream a video feed from your group into The Feast Conference, mail you a bigger set of Feast Tattly Temporary Tattoos + a Feast T-shirt or tote and if you’re in NYC, we’ll offer you and your entire group (limit of 20) free passes to the Pavilion.

Estimated delivery:Sep 2012

You selected

Pledge $500 or more

5 backers
Limited (5 left of 10)

We’ll arrange an exclusive, secret supper club event for all the contributors at this level and a number of remarkable entrepreneurs, investors, and thought leaders from The Feast community. You’ll also receive a VIP ticket to the official Feast World’s Fare dinner in NYC with guest chefs on Oct. 5 (conference afterparty) plus everything included in the “Superhero Friend of the Fare” package.

Estimated delivery:Sep 2012

You selected

Pledge $1,000 or more

8 backers
Limited (12 left of 20)

Get a special, all access pass to attend The Feast Conference (Oct. 3-5), the official Feast World’s Fare dinner party in NYC (conference afterparty, Oct. 5), and the Pavilion! (PLEASE READ: To be fair, there is a basic application process to attend the conference. If you're interested in this reward, send a short e-mail to hello@feastongood.com)

Estimated delivery:Sep 2012

You selected

Pledge $10,000

0 backers
Limited (5 left of 5)

Become a Guest of Honor -- Your contribution will go towards underwriting the cost of five fellows to The Feast Conference this year. You'll also receive all access to the Conference, The World's Fare dinner party, and the Pavilion. You'll get a special shout-out on-stage, we'll put some extra love in your meals, and you'll be able to cut to the front of any line the entire week (including the bathroom line). Seriously.

Estimated delivery:Sep 2012

Funding period

Jun 6, 2012 - Jul 6, 2012
(30 days)

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